Dhanush is a single stage, liquid propelled, 500 kg warhead missile with a range of 350 km.
The missile is a Naval derivative of the Prithvi missile deployed by the Indian Army and Air Force.
Contents

* At a Glance
* Operational Status
* Test FlightsAt a Glance

A naval variant of the Prithvi short range missile, Dhanush is a single stage, liquid fueled, 500 kg warhead missile with a range of 350 km.

Dhanush being test fired from OPV INS Shubhadra on December 13, 2009, off the Balasore coast.

Operational Status

The role of the Dhanush missile in the Indian Navy is not clear. Since it is a liquid fueled missile that takes a considerable time to fuel up and launch, its role can only be strategic. Its limited range of 350 km make ti Pakistan centric.

Considering that the Prithvi was built by reverse engineering the 1950s vintage SAM-2 missile acquired by India from the erstwhile Soviet Union, it is hard to understand what the missile is doing in the Indian strategic arsenal.

It is likely Indian Navy funded development of the missile to acquire an early stake in India's strategic defense.

The Navy will eventually acquire a major stake once India's nuclear powered boomer sub INS Arihant is commissioned armed with Saagrika missiles, something that will take a minimum of two more years.
The Dhanush has so far been tested using make shift platforms on Indian Navy ships such as the Rajput and INS Shubhadra.

In the past, the Dhanush has also been used for the BMD system under development by DRDO.

Though the missile has been launched from at least two naval ships of vastly different sizes - INS Rajput, a destroyer, and INS Shubhadra, an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), there is nothing to suggest that the Dhanush has been operationally deployed on any of the Indian Navy ships.

The missile is most probably a technology demonstrator aimed at developing and honing the technology to launch a missile from a fast moving ship and guide it to its target with pinpoint accuracy.

Test Flights

The Dhanush was first tested on April 11, 2000 from the Chandipur range. The development test failed.

The first successful test wad conducted on September 2001.

The second successful test of the Dhanush took place on November 7, 2004 when the missile was successfully fired from a naval ship off the Orissa coas.

It was again successfully tested from INS Subhadra off Orissa coast on March 30, 2007

On March 6, 2008 a PAD missile successfully intercepted a modified Dhanush surface-to-surface missile fired from INS Rajput anchored inside the Bay of Bengal. On that occasion, the Dhanush simulated a target “enemy” missile with a range of 1,500 km.

The Dhanush was most recently tested on December 13, 2009, at 11.31 am. It was launched from the Offshore Patrol Vehicle (OPV) INS Subhadra, anchored about 35 nautical miles offshore from the test range of Chandipur in Balasore district, 230 km from Bhubaneswar.

The test "met all the mission objectives" according to a DRDO official.

The missile flew for 520 seconds before hitting the target with a 10m CEP.

All the operations for the launch were carried out by Naval personnel.

“All the events occurred as expected and were monitored by the range sensors. It was a text book launch and a fantastic mission accomplished,” an official said.

"Dhanush, being developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was put to trial jointly by a team of scientists and officers from the Navy," said another official.

"Today's test launch has been tracked from its take-off to impact point through an integrated network of sophisticated radars and electro-optic instruments for post-mission data analyses," the sources said.

V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defense minister, and director general and secretary, Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was on-board the ship during the mission.

The Dhanush is thought to be a short-range, sea-based, liquid-propellant ballistic missile, perhaps a naval variant of the Prithvi series. According to unconfirmed reports, India developed the missile with European assistance, and its motor and guidance system were based on the Russian S-75 Guideline surface-to-air missile. There is a great deal of ambiguity surrounding this missile system. The particular nomenclature regarding this weapon is vague and causes technical difficulty in differentiating missile tests, production, and operationality. The weapon is not clearly set apart on its own and is often combined with other systems. It is also sometimes combined with the Sagarika Cruise Missile program. Because of the Dhanush's publicity, it is evident that the program exists and is in its testing phase.

In its current configuration, the Dhanush variant is 9.0 m in length, 1.1 m in diameter, and weighs between 4,000 and 4,600 kg. It uses a single-stage, liquid-propellant engine, giving it a maximum range of 250 km (155 miles) with an accuracy of 50 m CEP. Reports indicate the possibility of a two stage version, the first being solid fueled and the second liquid. This would provide the missile with a maximum range of approximately 300 km. It is unclear whether a new Dhanush would have the identical two stage solid propellant that the Prithvi-3 has. Its payload is a single warhead weighing up to 500 kg, only half as much as the Prithvi-1, which has a 1,000 kg payload.

The missile's warheads are nuclear, high-explosive, or submunitions. The missile can also be equipped with multiple payloads, to be dispensed by the missile during its flight. The use of high-explosive and submunition warheads enables the Dhanush to be used against airfields, manufacturing complexes, and military units, as well as enemy ships.

The deployment of Dhanush ballistic missiles as a sea-borne force will have little effect on the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan, as all of Pakistan is already vulnerable to the Indian road-mobile systems, which move on a regular basis so as to avoid detection. However, the Dhanush will dramatically increase the number of targets that India can strike within China, thereby significantly increasing the strength of India's deterrent force. Some commentators believe that the Dhanush may become a ship to ship missile with conventional munitions or a ballistic missile with either payload. Critics are skeptical about its operational value because the Indian Navy as of 2008 does not have a submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles.&nbsp; Its most likely platform would therefore be a ship, which is accepted as more vulnerable.1

The Dhanush program may have been used as a technology demonstratorfor thePrithvi-3. The two missiles use the same launching mechanism. The Dhanush ship-launched version was first tested in April 2000, then again in December 2000, September 2001, November 2004, December 2005, January 2006, and April 2007. The first two rounds of testing were negative, sources citing that the missile barely cleared the patrol boat to which it was mounted. The following tests were met with success in its range and payload capabilities.

On 28 January 2008, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was welcomed by a military parade featuring the Dhanush suggesting its operational capability. Commentators disagree on its classification between the SS-250, or Prithvi-2, and the P-3, or Prithvi-3. Because of this uncertainty, operational numbers and orders for this weapon are currently unclear. Reports from 2007 suggest that 84 total Prithvi-3 missiles have been ordered. It is most likely that amongst these are missiles designated Dhanush.2

The single-stage ship-based missile, which has a range of 350 kilometers, was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The trial was conducted in the presence of DRDO scientists and Defence officials.

According to the Defence Ministry, the test was conducted at around 11.30 a.m.

The Dhanush has a capacity to carry 500 kilograms of payload, and is also capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads.

The missile is developed to attain both in sea and shore-based targets.

The Dhanush, which has liquid propellant, is the naval version of indigenously developed surface-to-surface Prithvi missile.

According to sources, the test launch has been tracked from its take-off to impact point through an integrated network of sophisticated radars and electro-optic instruments for post-mission data analyses.

The last trial of Dhanush was successfully conducted from a naval ship off Orissa coast on March 30, 2007.

Earlier in April 2000, Dhanush had failed in its first test at the development stage due to certain technical problems. (ANI)

Nuclear capable Dhanush and Prithvi-2 missile tests are likely to be conducted tomorrow, defence sources said here."Agni-1, surface-to-surface single stage missile with 700 km range, will be taken up for test on Sunday," sources said adding that Defence Research Development Organisation and operational strategic units of army and naval forces would jointly conduct the operation.

They said nuclear capable Agni-1 would be test-fired from Wheeler Island, about 70 km across sea from Chandipur-on-sea. Prithvi-2, a missile with maximum range of 295 km, would be tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 15 km from here.

Dhanush, the naval version of Prithvi, would be testfired from a naval ship off the Orissa coast, the sources said.

The supersonic cruise missile, Brahmos, jointly developed by India and Russia, had a successful trial on March 22, 2010 from a naval ship off the Orissa coast.

"Both the missiles were successfully launched at the same time at 5.30 hours," SP Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur in Balasore district, told IANS.

While Prithvi II surface to surface ballistic missile with a range of 350 km was launched from Chandipur, some 230 kms from state capital Bhubaneswar, Dhanush, a naval version of Prithvi with the same range was launched from a naval ship off Orissa coast.

The test firing of Prithvi, the short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which has already been inducted into the armed forces, was a user trial by the Indian army. The sleek missile is "handled by the strategic force command", the defence sources said.

Prithvi, the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), has the capability to carry 500 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engine.

It uses an advanced inertial guidance system with maneuvering trajectory and reaches the targets with few meter accuracy. It has a length of 9 meters with 1 metre diameter.

The entire trajectory of today's trial was tracked down by a battery of sophisticated radars and an electro-optic telemetry stations were positioned in different locations for post-launch analysis, they said.

These journalists just write anything without having any knowledge. Prithvi has advanced system with maneuvereable trajectory? All our missiles are now semi cruise all of a sudden. Also range of Prithvi is 300, now they say 350. We have to take all reports in the media with a pinch of salt. As we say in our business, discount.

I don't believe so. The Agni needs s stable not moving platform. A Shurya or K15 can be used for missiles of those ranges.

Some missiles of range 2000 km rumoured to be squeezed into our Nuclear subs. Of course this after the 800 km missiles.

But i have a theory about the Dhanush

Bear with me here but i got the Idea while looking at the Chinese MId-course intercept.
It was done at a range of 1600+ km .

Looking at the range, The Missile that came to my mind was the DF-21. That Anti Aircraft carrier missiles. It was designed to be manoeuvrable enough to hit an aircraft carrier.
That means it has a special altered Ballistics Flight path. One can assume when they needed an Mid-source Interceptor, the DF-21 was the prefect fit, to be converted into a Kinetic Kill vehicle.

Now the consensus behind that line of thought is that, When we made our ABM system. We used the Prithvi. Because it had an altered Ballistic flight path. .
And as a result we have Prithvi Missiles that are manoeuvrable enough to hit , to hit an enemy missile while travelling at high super sonic speeds.

Now lets try reverser logic on the Pritvi , If the Chinese modified on its Ballistic Missiles to a anti-Ship role and then modified that to a Mid Course intercept.
Coudnt India has modified it's Ballistic Missile that was modified into Anti Ballistic Missile to a anti-Ship Ballistic missile.

Surely if a Pritvi can be modified to hit a pin while flying like a bullet. It can also be modified to launch from a moving platform to hit another moving platform

Dhanush brings China in our reach? what crap. some times people just go overboard and lose credibility.

gogot, I agree with your theory about using the Dhanush as an anti ship missile. Its a possibility that needs to be explored.

the Dhanush is probably a test bed for other missiles that will come up. May be with this missile they are testing launch systems from a moving ship. once that is done, we may have longer range missiles tested. All that the Dhanush otherwise achieves is that it gives the Navy a missile that it can strike Karachi and Gwadar being 300kms away.

"Both the missiles were successfully launched at the same time at 5.30 hours," SP Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur in Balasore district, told IANS.

While Prithvi II surface to surface ballistic missile with a range of 350 km was launched from Chandipur, some 230 kms from state capital Bhubaneswar, Dhanush, a naval version of Prithvi with the same range was launched from a naval ship off Orissa coast.

The test firing of Prithvi, the short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which has already been inducted into the armed forces, was a user trial by the Indian army. The sleek missile is "handled by the strategic force command", the defence sources said.

Prithvi, the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), has the capability to carry 500 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engine.

It uses an advanced inertial guidance system with maneuvering trajectory and reaches the targets with few meter accuracy. It has a length of 9 meters with 1 metre diameter.

The entire trajectory of today's trial was tracked down by a battery of sophisticated radars and an electro-optic telemetry stations were positioned in different locations for post-launch analysis, they said.

Defence Minister A K Antony on Saturday congratulated scientists for the successful test-firing of the indigenously developed ballistic missiles 'Prithvi II' and 'Dhanush' from different locations off the Orissa coast.

"I congratulate scientists for the successful launch of both missiles. It will add to the fire power of the armed forces," said Antony.

While the 'Prithvi II' was test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Orissa from a mobile launcher early this morning, the 'Dhanush' was launched from the INS-Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal.

The Prithvi is a tactical surface-to-surface, short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP), which was started in 1983 with the aim of achieving self sufficiency in the development and production of a wide range of ballistic missiles and surface to air missiles, besides other weapons.

The Prithvi is the first missile to be developed under the IGMDP.

The Prithvi II has a range of 250 kilometers and can carry a warhead weighing 500 kilograms.

The nuclear capable Dhanush is the naval version of the Prithvi, which can be launched from warships.

The Dhanush's 350 kilometres range would add to the Indian Navy's capability in targetting the enemy with greater precision